SteveBorland said:
A quick question for anyone who happens to have a pre-MkIII swingarm handy - what is the width between the inner flat surfaces (where the axle mounts)?
I'm looking at an alternative hub, but I suspect it's too wide at around 168mm or so....
Many thanks,
Steve.
I have a yamaha cast alum rear wheel on my commando. The new hub width was the least of the problems to solve. Most hubs will fit inside the swingarm plates. You will have to then figure out the new axle spacers to center that chosen wheel hub. Then, you'll need to do whatever machine work is necessary to it's sprocket carrier to bring the rear wheel sprocket into alignment with the gearbox sprocket. Now you'll have aligned sprockets and a rim that's centered in the swingarm.
In my bike's case, I had to remove .25" off the sprocket carrier to adjust the position of the sprocket after I centered the wheel. I also had to machine the swingarm's slots for a 17mm axle. I had to relocate the brake cable routing to the opposite side where the new hub's brake drum was located, and buy a 40 tooth rear sprocket made for the new yamaha wheel I was using. I also had to relocate the speedo gearbox to the front wheel... Alternative hubs, can be a can of worms... My set up works very well, but it wasn't simple to adapt, nor was it inexpensive.
The easiest (and probably best) thing you could do would be to buy a complete Madass rear wheel set up. Cush drive hub, new alloy rims, 1 piece axle, new spokes and modern tires and you are set with a modern wheel set up that looks like a stock norton wheel. It seems like you could adapt an alternative wheel to a commando cheaper than buying his entire set up, but I don't think I saved any money doing my adaptation, plus I had to work out all the changes myself. Don's stuff is already proven to work,... and it's beautiful, like jewelry...
If you want a challenge, adapt some new hub to your commando. If you want the advantage of modern features without the headaches you can buy the whole set up, with the headaches already worked out...
HTH.
